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Ed Psych: A Tool for Effective Teaching

Exploring Historical Background

William James (1st Psych textbooks, studying through observation in the classroom)

John Dewey (active and experimental learning; real-world application)

E.L. Thorndike (assessment-focused, reasoning skills are the most important)

Teaching: both art (passion for the craft) and science (passion for the students and their learning)

Effective Teaching

Professional Knowledge and skills...

Content Knowledge

Instructional Strategies

Critical Thinking Skills

Goal Setting

Developmentally Appropriate Practices

Classroom Management

Motivational and Communication Skills

Differentiated Instruction

Assessment Knowledge

Culturally Responsive

Technological Skills

Pedagogy!

Above all, Commitment, Motivation, and Caring!

Research

Experience is important, but don't forget to learn from others

Some research methods

Observing and Recording (Qualitative)

Correlational Research (Quantitative)

Experimental Research (Usually qualitative)

Program Evaluation (make decisions about the effectiveness of a program, qualitative)

Action Research (solve a specific problem, qualitative)

Teacher Research (conduct own experiments with kids, qualitative)

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We usually do the following:

Underestimate what disadvantaged students are capable of

postpone challenging work until they have mastered "the basics"

deprive students of motivation

Mutual Trust and respect are very important. Students must feel as though they belong in order for any true learning to take place.

1. Awareness

2. Learning Partnerships

3. Information Processing

4. Community Building

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Development

What is Development

biological, cognitive, and socio-emotional changes that begin and continue while someone is alive

Processes and Periods

Processes: Biological (heigh and weight, puberty, motor skills), Cognitive (intelligence and language), and Socio-emotional (relationships, emotions, and personality)

Periods: Infancy, Early Childhood, Middle and Late Childhood, Adolescence

Developmental Issues

Nature vs Nurture: biological vs environmental factors

Continuity vs Discontinuity: gradual change or distinct changes

Early vs Later: which part of development is the most important

Unwise to take an extreme one-sided take

Development and Education

Splintered Development: uneven across domains. ie: can't do math but has lots of language knowledge

The Brain: Prefrontal Cortex

Neurons and Brain regions: lots of them, some coated in myelin to increase speed of thought as time goes on

In Middle and Late Childhood: total brain volume tapers off, but structures and regions are still becoming distinct from one another

Adolescence: developing of corpus callosum (brain fiber for processing), limbic system (emotions), and amygdala (also emotion)

Lateralization: special function for each hemisphere (right brain vs left brain)

Plasticity: experiences (nurture) can effect how brains develop

Education is VERY important in brain development and plasticity. Adolescent may be big risk takers because no prefrontal lobe; they will follow what their brain pathways tell them to do.

Piaget's Theory

Cognitive Process: Schemas (organizing knowledge), assimilation and accommodation, organization, and shifting equilibrium through stages of development

Piagetian stages

Sensorimotor stage: sensory experiences of the world

Pre-operational: imaginative, intuitive, but not necessarily logical thought)

Concrete Operational: attempt at thinking logically and making connections and relationships)

Formal Operational: logical, abstract, and idealistic thinking

Constructivism and Technology: "students learn best when they are constructing information and knowledge,"

Piaget's yays and nays: yay for object permanence (agreement on what general age skills are developed), nay over/under estimating children by holding them to these standards.

Vygotsky's Theory

The Zone of Proximal Development: range of tasks that are too difficult for the child by themselves, but that they can achieve dependently

Scaffolding: changing the level of support to improve competence

Language and thought: speech/thoughts help socially and academically

Social interaction while learning is incredibly important

What is Language

Phonology: sound system, made up of phonemes (phonics?)

Morphology: the system of units of meaning, made up of morphemes

Syntax: how words are combined in sentences

Semantics: meaning of words/ sentences

Pragmatics: appropriate language in different circumstances

Biological/Environmental Influence

Chomsky: humans "prewired" in order to learn language in a certain way

How Language Develops

Infancy: babbling and two-word stage

Early childhood: rule systems used more regularly, literacy encouraged with books at home and in the classroom

Older Children: metalinguistic awareness

Adolescence: ~sophisticated~ words

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Individualism v collectivism:

not meant to stereotype cultures, but rather to gain knowledge of general "cultural orientation." These two exist on a continuum and aren't mutually exclusive

Individualism: yourself before others

Collectivism: emphasis on positive relationships in all directions, in business and in personal lives.

Redlining/gerrymandering is a great example of systematic oppression: reducing the political power of already oppressed groups. Oppression is so normalized sometimes it's hard to see.

Time to move beyond "one dimensional" definitions of equity and equality and examine how racism has become a structure rather than a belief.

"Culture of poverty" is not real. People born into poverty do not chose to be there; it does not acknowledge such systems like racism.

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Social Contexts and Socio-emotional Development

Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory

Five environmental systems

Microsystem

Mesosystem

Exosystem

Macrosystem

Chronosystem (time and changes in family life)

Not as biological as Piaget's theory

Erikson's Life-Span Development Theory

Eight stages of human development

Trust vs mistrust (0-1 years)

Autonomy vs shame (1-3 years)

Initiative vs guilt (3-5 years)

Industry v inferiority (6-10 ish years)

Identity vs confusion (10-20 years)

Intamacy vs isolation (20-39 years)

Generativity vs stagnation (40-59 years)

Integrity vs despair (60s-death)

Life-long, though a little rigid in age ranges

Families

Parenting styles

Authoritarian

Authoritative (Assertive)

Neglectful

Indulgent

Students do better when parents are involved/invested in students' education

Coparenting: two individuals jointly raising a child

Some varying families

Working parents (different professions will have different effects on children)

Divorced Parents (children will have poorer adjustment to school environment)

Parents will have an effect on out of school activities as well, like sports or music

Peers

Statuses

Popular

Average

Neglected

Rejected

Controversial

Friendship will influence attitudes towards learning and can determine how successful students will be in the classroom

Schools

Classrooms are social hubs for children

Early Childhood Education

Developmentally Appropriate Education: takes into account developmental stage of a child as well as individual differences

Montessori Approach: freedom to choose activities

Low-Income Learners: may need extra support to combat disadvantage

Elementary School

Technology that engages rather than separates

Adolescents in school

Middle School: top dog syndrome (can be combatted with more support as students are transitioning), curriculum/relevancy needs to be updated in order to be more developmentally appropriate

High School: negative social experiences damage students' abilities to succeed

The Self and Identity

Self-esteem: overall view of oneself

Identity development

Statuses: Diffusion (no crisis or commitment), Foreclosure (commitment, no crisis), Moratorium (crisis but no commitment), Achievement (both crisis and commitment)

Ethnic Identity: membership to a certain group, also influences identity

Moral Development

Kohlberg's Theory

Level 1: Pre-conventional, focus on the self

Level 2: Conventional, focus on small community relationships

Level 3: Post-conventional, focus on basic human rights for the whole world

(may be a little too much from the justice perspective, would like to see more from the care perspective)

Domain Theory: moral and social reasoning comes from social interaction

Cheating: best combatted by making sure students know what cheating is considered and what will happen if they do cheat.

Prosocial Behavior

Altruism: unselfish interest in helping someone else

Gratitude: thankfulness

Moral Education

Hidden curriculum: moral atmosphere of school

Character Education: SEL programs, preventing immoral behavior

Values Clarification: helping people clarify what's worth working for

Cognitive Moral Education: the belief that students should value justice and democracy

Service Learning: social responsibility through service to community.

Emotional Development

Early Childhood: new experiences, all very quick

Middle-Late Childhood: suppressing emotions begins, empathy begins to develop as well

Adolescence: "emotional turmoil"

SEL teams improve attention, communication, and the emotional well-being of students

Coping w/ stress: make sure to reassure students of their safety

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The Limbic Region: remembers positive and negative experiences that influence what we avoid and what we pursue; it creates our schema

Cellular Structure, Myelination: brain pathways are much like footpaths; the more they are walked upon and exercised, the easier it is to travel. More practice in an activity makes it easier. However, if the pathway isn't regularly used, it becomes overgrown and covered up. It becomes harder to access the knowledge and skills that aren't regularly exercised.

The Nervous System:

"the brain is a social organ" and works best when it is in community with others

If the amygdala senses danger in the form of unwelcomeness, it will experience anxiety, which only increases the perceptions of danger the amygdala will pick up. It's a vicious cycle.

Culturally Responsive Brain Rules:

The brain will always seek out opportunities to connect with others in community, and minimize anxiety

Micro-aggression: what one party sees as an innocent gesture, but the other party perceives as threatening

The brain needs to be part of a supportive and caring community in order to "maximize well-being" and learning.

Communities of color are drawn to art, music, movement, and story because historically, they were not deprived of these things in the academic classroom.

Dependent learners turn into independent learners when they are pushed outside of their comfort zones with the proper strategies

Supporting Dependent Learners: dependent learners will experience a lot of anxiety and fear in the classroom because they are frequently pushed outside of their comfort zones; this becomes amplified if they are not part of a welcoming classroom community. Therefore, creating a community that will minimize anxiety in students is crucial to them being able to learn.

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Individual Variation

What is intelligence?

"the ability to solve problems, to adapt, and to learn from experiences"

Intelligence Tests

Individual

Binet Test: IQ=MA/CA

Wechsler: like an IQ test but hi lights specific skills like verbal or nonverbal processing

Group

Less individualized, more outliers, but easier to manage.

Sometimes anxiety in students and/or other distractions can get in the way of accuracies of these tests

Theories of Multiple Intelligences

Sternberg's Triarchic Theory: intelligence can be either analytical, creative, or practical

Gardner's Eight Frames of Mind:

Verbal

Mathmatical

Spatial

Bodily-Kinesthetic

Musical

Intrapersonal (understanding of self)

Interpersonal

Naturalist

Emotional Intelligence

Perceiving and expressing emotions accurately

understanding emotions

monitor others and one's own emotions

knowledge about the differences between emotions

Can manage emotions to guide action

One intelligence vs many: Gardner says yes, others say no

Neuroscience of Intelligence

Moderate correlation of bigger brain and more intelligence

Prefrontal cortex influences intelligence

Parietal lobe also influences intelligence

Higher networking between/inside these two regions makes for more intelligence

"Gifted children" show faster processing

Nature and nurture influence intelligence

Controversy

Widespread schooling nowadays means a higher average IQ

Ethnicity and Culture

African-Americans and other oppressed groups systematically minoritized due to expectations, stereotypes then create anxiety and self-fulfilling prophecies.

Culture-fair tests are hard to create

Ability Grouping

Between Class: grouping students based on abilities to work on specific skills (reading, learning, thinking skills) regardless of age, like the Joplin Plan

Within class: same as before, but limited to a certain age group.

Some Thinking Styles

Impulsive/reflective: acting quickly or take more time to think and respond

Deep/surface: deals with how to engage with material; only knowing the basics or enough to get by, or diving deep to understand meaning and "why" we learn.

Optimistic/Pessimistic: Positive or Negative expectations for the future

Criticisms of Learning and Thinking Styles

low reliability and consistency between styles; students change all the time

no accurate means of testing

variability in definitions of the styles

Personality

Big 5

Oppenness: independent or conforming

Conscientiousness: careful v careless

Extraversion: introvert vs extrovert

Agreeableness: outgoing v suspicious

Neuroticism: self-image

Person-situation interaction: personality is more than personal traits; it also deals with the situation involved. Culture basically.

Temperament

behavioral style and ways of responding to situations

Easy child classification: positive, adaptive, resilient

Difficult child classification: slow to change, negative, irregular behavior

Slow-to-wake child classification: low activity, somewhat negative

Goodness of fit: match between child's temperament and the environmental demands

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Managing implicit biases internally is crucial as an educator

Identifying Cultural Frame of Reference: must be done before encountering cultural conflict; now is the perfect time to acknowledge where you will have unconscious or conscious biases so you can prepare for management in the future

Cultural Reference Points: what does your culture say about intelligence? who is allowed to be smart, and is it right to place restrictions or expectations on who deserves to hold intelligence?

Interpretation Aperture: allow for critical thinking and alternative explanations to hold ground in processing after conflict instead of acting on feeling. Misinterpretations are common in the classroom.

Using pop culture movies/ shows to let you feel empathy for those from different background than your own: African-American and Latino cultures are both communal, but they are different across other domains

Identifying Triggers: Miscommunication across cultures is so common; be aware of this

Supporting Dependent/ Disadvantaged Learners: devote time towards improving cultural awareness, just as you would do for lesson planning.

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The brain has actually developed a "social engagement system" to make sure we stay in good standing with everyone around us to ensure our safety and well-being.

Rapport and Affirmation:

Helping students rethink their own behavior will always work better than reprimanding or rewarding them.

Rapport will allow dependent learners to share their learning preferences and processes better than any test score will.

Trust is the opposite of fear, or cortisol. Trust will stop the production of excessive cortisol in the classroom, freeing up mental energy for students to learn instead of live in fear. Trust calms the brain enough to learn.

Micro-aggressions committed by not considering another's culture undermine trust and undo the work made to make the classroom a learning environment.

Selective Vulnerability: sharing with students a new skill you are learning is important; the more you can model a "less-than-perfect beginning" the better. It is crucial they understand that the first draft shouldn't be the finishes product so they don't become paralyzed by perfection or unrealistic expectations.

Rapport in the classroom: just because you are using a "nice" tone of voice does not mean the interaction was pleasant for the student

Finding time to have fun as a class is crucial in building classroom community, and therefore trust.

Practicing Affirmation:

Seeing students goes so much deeper than giving surface level compliments or questions. Students can tell if you're genuinely invested in their lives or not

Some ideas: using words from a native language to call the class to attention or give directions; put up student-inspired inspirational quotes on the wall

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Establishing Alliance in the Learning Partnership

"Every child deserves a champion: an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists they become the best they can possibly be" -Rita Peterson

Why Marginalized Dependent Learners Need an Ally

When academic hurdles seem insurmountable, students become discouraged and disengaged

"When a teacher expresses sympathy over failure, lavishes praise for completing a simple task, or offers unsolicited help, you send unintended messages of low expectations

Internalized Oppression: when a student internalizes the negative social messages about his racial group, begins to believe them, and loses confidence

Validating Students' Experiences: "being hopeful can be hard if as social justice educators, we continually beat the drum of oppression and social inequity"

The Pact: a student and a teacher working together towards a learning goal in a professional relationship

Creating the Pact:

Talk with students, not at them

Ask the student(s) what they think is getting in the way of learning

Let students know in advance that you will ask them to stretch themselves

Make sure to document what was talked about

Giving Dependent Learners The Basic Tools for Independent Learning:

give regular time for processing

Effective feedback helps build trust in a teacher/student relationship; the student recognizes the teacher's want to help them better themselves

Four distinct characteristics of quality feedback

Instructive rather than evaluative

Specific and in the right dose

Timely

Delivered in a low stress and supportive environment

Giving "Wise" Feedback

"Cushioning" feedback to students of color because of unfamiliarity or discomfort only hurts them in the long run

Specific elements of wise feedback

Assurance of capability

Explicit stating of standards

Specific action steps

Having the student paraphrase what was just said is a good comprehension checker while feedback is being given

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Behavioral and Social-Cognitive Approaches

What is Learning?

A permanent influence on behavior, knowledge, and thinking skills (happens through experience)

Approaches to Learning

Behavioral

Behaviorism: behavior explained by observable practices

Mental processes: thoughts and feelings, non-observable

Associative Learning: connecting two or more events to one another

Cognitive: thought-focused

Classical Conditioning

connecting stimuli

Generalization: new similar stimuli producing similar results

Discrimination: response to certain stimuli, but not others

Extinction: weakening of response due to lack of enforcement

Systematic Desensitization: lowering anxiety by having the individual associate relaxation with certain stimuli

explains involuntary responses, but not voluntary ones

Operant Conditioning

behavior frequency affected by consequence

Reinforcement: reward or lack of consequence, increases probability of behavior occurring

Punishment: decreases probability of behavior occurring

Generalization: same response to similar stimuli, for a different purpose, like a different school subject

Discrimination: differentiating between stimuli

Extinction: stimuli decrease, response decrease

Applied Behavior Analysis

Application of operant conditioning to change behavior

Increasing Desirable Behaviors:

Effective Reinforcers:

Premack Principle: a highly desired reward/reinforcer will work to reinforce an activity with low desire

Contingent and Timely Reinforcers: only after a child does a certain behavior, and in a relevant time period

Scheduling Reinforcement: when a reward or consequence will be given (variable vs fixed, time vs ratio)

Contracting: reinforcements are in writing, makes it more obvious and easier to understand

Effecting Negative Reinforcement: removing an unpleasant outcome

Prompts: cue given before response to increase the frequency of the correct behavior, like a hint

Shaping: teaching behavior by reinforcing approximations or intervals of the target behavior (50% accuracy to 60% accuracy)

Decreasing Undesirable Behaviors

Differential Reinforcement: reinforcing desired behavior after undesired behavior has occurred (do this instead of what you just did)

Terminate Reinforcement: ignoring negative behavior, only reinforcing desired behavior going forward

Remove Desirable Stimuli:

Time-out: removing from any positive reinforcement (person out of the situation)

Response cost: taking positive reinforcers away (situation away from the person)

Present Punishments:

DO NOT yell or scream

Punishing too often will create a strong dislike

Punishment can create anxiety and agitation

ALWAYS accompany with a corrective behavior to encourage positive/desirable growth.

Don't give too much attention (aka call-in instead of call-out)

Criticisms

Operant Conditioning focuses too much on external factors still

Students should learn how to control their own behavior instead of us managing it all the time

Word. Better than Carrots or Sticks

Bandura's social cognitive theory

Cognition, Behavior, and Environment all influence each other in a triangle

Observational Learning

skills, strategies, and beliefs, gained by watching others

Processes

Attention: model commands attention

Retention: verbal cues of how to replicate

Production: actual replication, sometimes limited by motor skills

Motivation: often by a reinforcement

Models in the classroom: YOU, always.

Models in media: numerous, important that they are positive. Children will repeat what they see.

Cognitive-Behavioral Approaches and Self-Regulation

putting it back in the student's hands

Cognitive-behavioral approaches: letting students monitor/regulate their own behavior

Self-regulatory learning: self-monitoring of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in order to reach a goal

This is so Better than Carrots or Sticks

Conclusion

Pros: learning in the student's own hands

Cons: no age-related/developmental practices.

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Shifting Academic Mindset in the Learning Partnership

"If you can show me how I can cling to that which is real to me, while teaching me a way into the larger society, then and only then will I drop my defenses and hostility, and I will sing your praises and help you to make the desert bear fruit," -Ralph Ellison

In order to make the shift from dependent to independent learner, a student must believe in themselves first.

When students have negative mindsets, they give up a lot more quickly in the face of hard tasks that they haven't received the resources to complete.

"Our focus has to be on shifting mindset rather than on trying to force engagement or cajole students' motivation. Students have to become self-motivated. That's one of the hallmarks of an independent learner," -Hammond

Sociopolitical Impact on Academic Mindset

A student's academic mindset is often not a person choice, but rather more directly influenced by schools. Learners still tend to blame themselves for failures because they are not aware of how the system may have failed them.

Negativity bias: present in all students to a certain degree

Negativity bias combined with the amygdala hijack can really influence students to believe that school is an unwelcoming place based off of micro-aggressions

Micro-insults: "being insensitive to culturally and linguistically diverse students and trivializing their racial and culturally identity such as not learning to pronounce a student's name or giving the student an anglicized name to make it easier on the teacher.

Helping Students to Create a Counter Narrative:

Story Structure: the brain's natural way of thinking through concepts

As an ice breaker: have students come up with negative mindsets or beliefs they may have about themselves, and then prompt them to come up with 2-3 logical counterpoints that have disproved that claim

Notice and acknowledge when students are showing the elements of academic mindset: point out when you see students who have in the passed demonstrated learned helplessness show aspects of independent scholarship, ask thoughtful questions, put in effort, and learn from their errors

Helping Students connect with their already present expertise and competence: have students write down or share with others their area of expertise in order to remind them of self-efficacy

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Information Processing Approach

Cognitive approach; children will manipulate, monitor, and strategize with information. Involves attention, memory, and thinking.

Cognitive Resources

Capacity and speed of processing information

Gets easier with time

Nature and nurture have ground here (myelination, exposure to concepts)

More dimensions of problems are analyzed as we get older

How fast we process affects what we can do with this information

Reaction time gets faster with age

Mechanisms of Change

Encoding: the process by which information goes to memory

Automaticity: the ability to process information with little to no effort

Strategy Construction: creation of a new procedure to process information

Metacognition: knowing about knowing, like how one can best study

Attention

focusing of mental resources

Selective Attention: focusing on a specific aspect while ignoring what is irrelevant

Divided Attention: concentrating on more than one activity at a time

Executive Action: planning, giving attention to goals, detecting errors, monitoring progress, rolling with the punches

Relevant for big tasks like writing papers

Developmental Changes

length of time we can pay attention increases as we get older

more attention=more school readiness

what is obvious grabs out attention

attention to what is relevant increases as we age, while attention to what is irrelevant decreases with age

Abilities to select and divide attention also increase with age

ADHD: affects information processing as well

Make information relevant in the classroom and your students will learn a lot more easily

Memory

retention of information over time; involves encoding, storage, and retrieval

Encoding

Rehearsal: conscious repetition of information over time to increase the amount of time information stays in memory

Levels of Processing Theory:

Deep processing will result in longer retention

Shallow processing will result in shorter retention

Elaboration: extensiveness of information while encoding

coming up with examples; correlation helps memory

Constructing Images: an example of elaborating

Organization

Chunking: grouping information together to give context to meaning; helps to create easier retrieval

Storage

Sensory memory: holds information in its original form, but only for a second

Short-term memory: a limited capacity system, only holds memory for 30 seconds

Long-term memory: holds lots of information for long periods of time

Declarative Memory: conscious facts and events

Procedural Memory: conscious skills and cognitive operations

Episodic Memory: where and when of life happenings

Semantic Memory: general knowledge of the world

Network Theory: concrete subjects connected under abstract ones, but atypical connections are harder to remember

Schema Theory: constructing information into categories that already exist in our minds

Fuzzy trace theory: memory understood by both verbatim and the gist

Retrieval and Forgetting:

Serial Position effect: recall is better for items at the beginning and at the end

Cue-dependent forgetting: lack of effective retrieval cues

Interference theory: we don't ever lose memories, other information just gets in the way

Decay theory: time is responsible for forgetting since emotions become less attached to the past

Expertise and Learning

Detecting Features, Noticing Meaningful Patterns, Organization, Depth of Knowledge, and Fluency of Retrieval all get easier with expertise

Innovation and efficiency are developed

Strategies

Spreading Out and Consolidating: studying over long periods of time rather than cramming

Asking Questions: asking self-developed concentration question to check own understanding

Taking Notes: summarizing, outlining, and using concept maps are all valuable skills

Using a Study System

Acquiring Expertise

Practice and Motivation

Talent

Expertise and Teaching

Pedagogical Content Knowledge: knowledge about common difficulties students will encounter while learning

Developmental Changes

Meta-memory: verbatim vs gist skills

Theory of Mind: awareness of one's own mental processes as well as the processes of others

The Good Information-Processing Model

Children are taught to use a particular strategy

Children start to notice shared features/ outcomes of different strategies

Children start to see general benefits of using strategies

Strategies and Metacognitive Regulation

Helping students develop multiple strategies that are effective is key in education

giving instructions increases the abilities of students to apply stratgies

monitoring effectiveness from both an internal and external standpoint

Takes time to develop these memory skills

most children already use multiple strategies, but they could always use more guidance

The more background knowledge, the better.

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Information Processing to Build Intellective Capacity

"Disguising" a lesson with cultural references is not effective, especially when we are still presenting the lesson in traditional and non-culturally-responsive ways

The Power of Active Processing: just because you heard something does not mean you've processed it

Elaboration: the brain can only process for about 12-20 minutes, then cycles down for 10 minutes; basically your brain gives itself its own breaks

Chewing, or processing content:

"Too often, we continue lecturing without providing time and space for students to do active processing... learners need the cognitive space to process"

Letting students have breaks to quietly reflect on notes, draw a picture of what was discussed, journal about questions they might have, or turn and talk is extremely valuable

Though this may seem chaotic at first, this method improves students' understanding and retention

Cognitive Routines

some questions for reflection while processing:

How is this new material related to what I already know?

What are the natural relationships and patterns in the material?

How does it fit together? What larger systems are at play?

Whose point of view does this represent?

These questions may be challenging, which may present struggle; to help students avoid an amygdala hijack through this struggle, remember how to be an ally. Stay calm and focused as they are learning these new habits.

Story-ify the Content

Provide key words, ideas, and concepts, and then ask students to combine them intro a coherent narrative

Helps them identify similarities and differences, relationships, and point of view.

Graphic Organizers

Nonlinguistic representations of material contribute leaps and bounds to understanding and comprehension.

Reviewing: the learner must apply their new learning in 24 hours in order for the neural pathways to form effectively.

Culturally Responsive Information Processing:

"Oh, we are learning. You are just hiding it in the fun." (that's the goal)

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Complex Cognitive Processes

Concepts: groups of objects, events, and characteristics on the basis of common properties

Promoting Concept Formation

Learn about concept features

Definition of Concept (superordinate, key terms in definition)

Give examples and non examples

Concept Maps: visual presentation of a concept's connections and organization

Hypothesis Testing: what is true of a concept?

Prototype Matching: deciding whether an item fits the category by comparing it with the most typical examples of the category

Thinking: Manipulating and transforming information into memory, forming connections and reason; allows for critical thinking, decision making, creativity, and problem solving

Executive Function: Managing one's thoughts to behave in a goal-directed manner and showcase self-control

Reasoning

Inductive Reasoning: assuming from specific to general

Analogy: correspondence between otherwise dissimilar things

Deductive Reasoning: assuming from general to specific

Critical Thinking: thinking reflectively and productively, evaluating evidence

Mindfulness: being present and flexible while going through life

Critical thinking in schools

Asking why

Arguing with reason

More than one right answer

Thinking creatively outside the box

Adolescence: Increase of speed, knowledge, and spontaneity in the brain

Technology and Critical Thinking: concept mapping digitally, access to more information

Decision Making: evaluating alternatives to make choices

Biases and Flaws in Decision Making:

Confirmation Bias: tendencies to search for information that supports you

Belief Perseverance: holding on to a belief despite contradictory evidence

Overconfidence Bias: self explanatory, basing off of past experiences

Hindsight bias: falsely reporting after the fact

Decision Making in Adolescence:

Dual-Processing Model: one experiential, one analytical

Creative Thinking

Steps:

1) Preparations

2) Incubation

3) Insight

4) Evaluation (is the idea new or not new?)

5) Elaboration (the hard work)

Teaching and Creativity:

Be surprised by something everyday

Try and surprise someone else everyday

Follow those sparks of interest

Wake up in the morning with a specific goal

Spend time in settings that spark your creativity

Steps in Problem Solving

1) Find and Frame Problems

2) Develop Strategies

Subgoaling: intermediate goals

Algorithms: guaranteed solutions like formulas

Heuristics: strategies that aren't the most reliable

Means-end analysis: identify end and current position, and assess from there

3) Evaluate solutions

4) Rethink and Reframe as more information surfaces

Obstacles to Solving Problems

Fixation: using a prior strategy instead of exploring new ways

Lack of Motivation and Persistence

Inadequate Emotional Control, like anxiety attacks

Developmental Changes

Problem-Solving is harder for younger children

Older children have more knowledge and strategies

Problem/Project

Problem Based Learning: solving authentic problems

Project-Based Learning: solving authentic problems while keeping the product in mind

Transfer: applying previous learning to a new situation

Types of Transfer

Near Transfer: transfer of learning to a similar situation

Far transfer: transfer of learning to a very different situation

Low-road transfer: automatic and low-energy requirement transfer

High-road transfer: applying in a way that takes lots of effort

Forward-reaching: transferring to a future situation

Backward-reaching: transferring from an old experience to a new one

Cultural Practices and Transfer: minimal transfer between home learning and school learning

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Creating a Culturally Responsive Community for Learning

"Every person needs a place that is furnished with hope," -Maya Angelou

"Children grow into the intellectual life around them," -Leo Vygotsky

Routines, aesthetics, talk structures, and task variety are the brick and mortar of a positive classroom environment.

Only when our brains can perceive that we are physically, socially, and intellectually safe can we learn effectively.

Some questions for classroom community building:

What values do we want to communicate through our environment?

How do we want children to experience their time in our classroom?

What do the artifacts on the wall say about this classroom?

What do we want the environment to teach?

Classroom Aesthetics and Symbols

The brain in constantly scanning surroundings subconsciously in order to ensure the environment is contributing to a sense of well-being, which will often connect to ones home environment

Artifacts: bring in art from local community organizations

Routines:

Open the day with a centering activity

Use music call and response in order to transition from activity to activity

Reinstate after lunch re-centering as well to get minds focused on learning

Student Agency and Voice: talking helps us process; Vygotsky believed that we learn more when in conversation with others.

Implications for supporting dependent learners and building intellective capacity: the classroom community is one of the most important aspects in a dependent learner's journey to independent learner ship. A welcoming classroom makes the amygdala relax so effective learning can take place.

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Social Constructionist Approach: learning is social, knowledge is built through mutual trust (Vygotsky)

Situated Cognition: thinking is done in social settings

Scaffolding: challenging the level of support provided throughout a lesson

Cognitive Apprenticeship: a relationship where an expert aides a novice to expertise using scaffolding

Tutoring

Classroom aids: like reading programs or other resources meant to help students in their education

Peer tutoring: PALS in person or online

Cooperative Learning: Occurs in groups, where individuals help each other learn

Research: group rewards, individuals are held accountable

Motivation: goes way up in group learning

Interdependence: connections with others

Creating Cooperative Learning Environments: class cooperation, interclass cooperation, school-wide cooperation, school-parent cooperation, school-neighborhood cooperation

Evaluating Cooperative Learning: increased independence

Drawbacks: abilities differ, natural lone-wolfs may dislike it

Composing the Gap

Heterogeneous Ability: different experiences, benefits the "low-achieving" students

Heterogeneity across ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender

Team building skills: contributes to better listening and leadership skills

Structuring Small-Group Interaction

Encourager

Gatekeeper: equalized participation

Coach

Checker

Taskmaster

Recorder

Quiet Captain

Materials Monitor

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Planning, Instruction, and Technology

Instructional Planning: systematic and organized strategy to plan lessons

Time Frames and Planning

"Task and time:" what needs to be done and when

Planning all sorts of time spans; yearly monthly, daily

Leave room for improvisation

Not as much time in this country to lesson plan, collaborate, and correct homework

So get to school early and stay late!!! :)

Teacher-Centered Lesson Planning

Behavioral objectives: statements focusing on student behavior and the desired levels of performance

Task analysis: breaking down a task into more manageable pieces

Instructional Taxonomies: classification systems for education

Cognitive Domain: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation

Affective Domain: Receiving, Responding, Valuing, Organizing, Value Characterizing

Psychomotor Domain: Reflexes, Basic Fundamentals, Perceptual abilities, Physical abilities

Direct Instruction

teacher control, high expectations, students spend most of their time on academic tasks

Teacher-Centered Instructional Strategies

Orienting

Advance Organizers: learning activities and techniques that establish background skills before a new topic is presented. Can be expository (looking ahead) or comparative (connecting to previous material)

Lecturing/Explaining/Demonstrating

Motivating Student Interest

Introducing a Topic Before independent study

summarizing information after discussion

providing alternative points of view

explaining materials that are difficult in more detail

Questioning within discussion to involve students

Mastery Learning: teaching one topic thoroughly before moving on to the next

Seatwork: students work independently at their seats

Homework

Better when spread out

homework better for English and math, not the sciences

1-2 hours for middle school, more for high school, but don't over work them!

Last Thoughts on Teacher-Centered Instruction

Organized planning and objectives, make your lesson relevant to students

Set high standards

Use of lecture/explanation/demonstration

Engage students by asking questions

Seatwork/homework

Learner-Centered Principles

YES

4 principles of great importance

Cognitive and Metacognitive thought processes

Motivational and Instructional

Developmental and Social

Individual Differences

Learner-Centered Instructional Strategies

Problem-Based Learning: real world thinking like mentioned before

Essential Questions: reflect the heart of the curriculum, or what students should prioritize as the most important lesson

Discovery Learning: students constructing their own understanding. Sometimes can be guided.

Last Thoughts on Learner-Centered

More focus on learning aspects than the actual material

Not either/or with teacher-centered; elements of both can exist simultaneously

Interactive technology as a way to reach students

Technology and Internet Shaping Learning

The Cloud, graphics, and presentations make a lot of things easier for organization and learning in the education world

Standards for Technology Literacy

Empowered Learner: reaching goals through technology

Digital Citizen

Knowledge Construction: Creative Tools and Assistive Technology

Innovative Designer and Problem Solver

Computational Thinker: testing hypothesis with computer programs

Creative and Communitive

Global Collaborator and Connector

Teaching, Learning, and Technology

Using tech to improve

explore about your domain!

think about the limits of understanding

more ways to demonstrate understanding (assistive technology, etc)

Assessing learning, should always be double checked by human eyes

Teacher and Students as learners

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: linking between technology and content knowledge

Stages:

Avoidance

Learning

Developing specific uses

Comfortability

Confidence in relevance and reliability

Actual usage

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Motivation, Teaching, and Learning

Motivation: the processes that energize, direct, and sustain behavior

Perspectives on Motivation: (elements of truth to all)

Behavioral: Incentives, similar to conditioning

Humanistic: capacity for personal growth and freedom to choose

Cognitive Perspective: thoughts guide motivation

Competence Motivation: motivated to master their worlds

Social Perspective: Motivated based on people

Need for affiliation or relatedness

Extrinsic (doing something to get something else) and Intrinsic (doing something simply to do something) Motivation

Self- Determination and Personal Choice: intrinsic

Optimal Experiences and Flow: intrinsic

Interest: intrinsic

Individual interest: longstanding and stable skills and attention

Situational interest: specific to a time and place

Cognitive Engagement and Self-Responsibility: intrinsic because independent learning

Extrinsic: Rewards; Intrinsic: Motivation

Developmental Shifts in Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation:

Person-Environment fit: is the environment meeting the students' needs? or worsening their self-image?

Attribution Theory: Individuals are motivated to discover the underlying causes of their behavior

Mastery Motivation and Mindset

Mastery Motivation

Mastery Orientation: process over product

Helpless Orientation: trapped by experiences of difficulty or anxiety

Performance Orientation: product over process

(Performance and Mastery are not polar opposites; can have elements of both)

Mindset: an individual's cognitive view, fixed or growth (jungle tiger)

Self-Efficacy: the belief that one can master a situation and produce a positive outcome

Goal-setting, Planning, and Self-Monitoring

Long term and short term goals

Challenging goals

Developmental Changes and Goal Setting

Middle School: social pressures lower self-efficacy and foster performance orientation

Planning and Self-Monitoring: Plan how to reach your goal otherwise it will not get done

Expectations (and their influence on motivation)

From Students: how hard they work influenced by how much they expect to accomplish

From Teachers: bias towards "high-ability" makes the gap worse

Delay of Gratification: postponing immediate rewards in favor of later and larger rewards

Some questions for reflection on Values and Purpose

What's most important to you?

Why do you care?

Do you have long-term goals?

Why are these goals important?

What does it mean to have a good life?

What does it mean to be a good person?

How would you like to be remembered?

Social Motives: needs and desires that are learned through experiences with the social world

Social Relationships <3

Demographic Characteristics: education is generational. A lack of involvement from any party can undercut a child's improvement

Some practices:

Knowing the child, their challenges, and their supports

Positive emotional climate, influencing intrinsic motivation

Modeling motivation and growth mindset

Provision of Specific Experiences at home: having reading materials readily available

Peers, teachers, and social goals: students perform better if their relationships are positive

Teachers and Parents: a necessary partnership

Sociocultural Contexts:

Systematic prejudice still affects students. Schools do not do a good enough job of motivating students who are lower on the socioeconomic ladder

Mentoring and Tutoring within the school and community really helps

Students Who are "Low Achieving" and Have Low Expectations for Success

Failure System: low expectations for success, giving up at difficulty, not intrinsically motivated

Students Who Protect Their Self-Worth by Avoiding Failure

Non-performance

Procrastination

Setting unreachable goals

"Fail before you start"

Students Who Procrastinate:

Ignoring the Task

Underestimating work, overestimating abilities

Avoidance

Substituting a lower-priority activity

Focusing only on part of a larger task

Becoming paralyzed at the thought of choice

Students Who Are Perfectionists

Another reason to procrastinate

Setting goals/ expectations out of reach or reason

Students with High Anxiety:

Sensation of fear and apprehension associated with everyday tasks

Students who are Uninterested or Alienated:

Re-socialization is the answer

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Managing the Classroom

Management Issues: usually more complicated at the Secondary Level

The Crowded, Complex, and Chaotic Classroom:

Classrooms are multidimensional and are used for a variety of activities

Activities occur simultaneously

Things happen quickly

Events are unpredictable

There is little privacy

Classrooms hold memories

Getting Off to the Right Start:

Make good use of setting precedents

aka, set classroom rules, routines, and expectations, and moods early on

Emphasizing Instruction and a Positive Classroom Climate:

Positive Classroom Environments better support learning than disciplined ones

Students are more encouraged to be active learners and listeners this way as well (overlapping speech, Hammond text)

Management Goals and Strategies:

Help students spend the majority of their time on learning

Keep students from developing problems

Managing Instructing (asking questions, giving practice time, assessment)

Principles of Classroom Arrangement:

Reduce Congestion

Make so you can easily see al students

Make often-used materials easily accessible

Make sure all students can see you

Arrangement Style:

Some standard classroom arrangements:

Auditorium

Face-to-face

Offset

Seminar

Cluster

Personalizing the Classroom: don't make it a motel room

General Strategies:

Authoritative: encourages students to be independent thinkers but still utilizes monitoring

Authoritarian: restrictive and punitive, focus on keeping order rather than learning

Permissive: allows considerable autonomy, but provides little support for developing learning skills or behavior management

Creating, teaching, and maintaining rules and procedures:

Withitness: teachers are aware of what is happening; stopping inappropriate behaviors before they get out of hand

Keeping Students Engaged and Cooperative:

Develop a positive relationship with students

Get students to be intrinsically motivated

Classroom Management and Diversity:

Restorative Justice!! <3

Improves School Climate

Disproportionate referrals are due to a miscommunication between students and teachers, due to a lack of cultural sensitivity on the teacher's end

Speaking Skills

Select Appropriate vocabulary, pace, specificity, and planning

Barriers: criticizing, name-calling/labelling, advising/downplaying, ordering, threatening, moralizing (you should know how to do this by now)

Use effective public speaking skills (connect with the audience, be specific, use visual/auditory/kinesthetic aids)

Listening Skills

Active Listening: gives full attention to the speaker, notes both the intrinsic and emotional takeaways

Nonverbal Communication (an EnVOY principle)

Facial Expressions, personal space, and silence all play a role here

Allow thinking/processing time after questions are asked

Management Strategies:

Minor interventions: non-verbal cues, redirecting

Moderate Interventions: withholding privilege, isolating, giving punishment, using conditioning

Using others as resources (peers, PTCs)

Enlist the help of principals/counselors

Dealing with Hostility:

School Violence may manifest as fighting and bullying

Don't give unnecessary attention: "I'll address that in a second"

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Standardized Tests and Teaching

Standardized Tests: tests with uniform procedures for administration and scoring. Allegedly are supposed to assess performance in different domains and compare performances to each other

Criteria for Evaluating Standardized Tests:

Norm-referenced

Norm group: group of individuals previously tested that provides a basis for interpreting scores

Norm-referenced tests: students' scores are interpreted by comparing it to the norm group

Criterion-referenced: a students' score is determined by comparing it to a criteria

Validity: the extent to which a test is able to measure what it is intended to measure

Reliability: the extent to which a test produces a consistent and reproducible score

Fairness: a test should not be influences by any discriminatory factors

Comparing Aptitude and Achievement Tests:

Aptitude Test: predicts a students' ability to learn a skill with further education

Achievement test: measures what a student has already mastered

Types of Standardized Achievement Tests:

Multiple subject-matter tests, meant for a particular level of students

Tests for a specific subject-matter

Diagnostic Tests: in-depth evaluation of a specific area of learning

High-stakes State Standards-based Tests

The format is usually multiple choice (aka, no independent or creative thought whatsoever)

Criticisms:

Teaching to the test

Categorizing schools as "deserving" and "undeserving" of funds based on alleged "achievement" measured by these flawed performance exams

emphasis on memorization rather than actual learning

Inherently discriminatory

Narrows curriculum

No Child Left Behind

Adequate Yearly Progress: labels schools and students as "underperforming"

Every Student Succeeds Act:

Reversed some of NCLB

World Class Standards: reading, math, and science.

Standardized tests of Teacher Candidates:

PRAXIS

Not super effective

screens for "low-level understanding" of content knowledge, educational skills, and pedagogy

No national test required

Preparing Students to Take Standardized Tests:

There is more information and learning than just what is on this test. You have and will learn so much more beyond this systematic ranking system.

Understanding and Interpreting Test Results:

Descriptive Statistics

Frequency Distribution

Average

Measures of Variability

Normal Distribution

Interpreting

Percentile rank

9 point score: "low performing to high"

Grade-equivalent: indicates a students performance in relation to grade level and month, based on a 10 month school year

Standard Score: a score expressed as a deviation from the mean

Don't over-interpret ok

Standardized Tests, Alternative Assessments, and high-stakes testing:

Alternative Assessments: 100% better in every aspect

Comparison is doing nothing for students. I don't care that some administrators like to play with their silly little numbers in their office down the hall. Have they every really talked to a child. What part of ranking children and deciding which child is worthy of receiving help and resources is ok

Diversity and Standardized Testing:

These tests are not culturally responsive or relevant in any way

I didn't like how this section was only one paragraph tacked on at the end, almost as if it was an afterthought.

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Classroom Assessment and Grading

Assessment as an integral part of Teaching:

Pre-instruction Assessment: to student possess prerequisite knowledge in order to be successful?

Formative Assessment: assessment during the course of instruction

Summative Assessment: assessment after instruction to document performance

Making assessment Compatible with Contemporary views of Learning and Motivation:

Assessment can be a motivator and engager if used effectively

Alternative assessment is the most useful

Creating Clear and Appropriate Learning Targets:

Think to yourself: what should students know/ be able to do?

Establishing High-Quality Assessments:

Validity: the extent to which the assessment is a reasonable sample of what went on in the classroom

Fairness: culturally responsive assessments during and after instruction

Current Trends in Classroom Assessment:

Objective tests: tests that have clear and unambiguous answers (dependent learning)

Performance assessment: required creating answers that demonstrate knowledge (independent learning)

Selected-Response items (objective and scored quickly by the answer key)

Multiple-Choice: a stem plus possible responses

True/False

Matching: connecting stimuli

Constructed-Response (written or created; performance rather than memorization)

Short-answer: writing a word, sentence, or phrase as a response to a prompt

Essays: more writing and freedom

Trends in Alternative Assessment:

Authentic assessment: evaluating a student's knowledge in a context that resembles the real world

Performance Assessment:

Rubric: lists specific criteria for grading and scoring

Performance criteria: specific behaviors that students need to perform effectively for assessment

Objective tests do not measure all that there is to learn

Portfolio Assessment (demonstrates skills/accomplishments)

Effective use of portfolios

Purpose: either growth or best work

Involve students in selecting portfolio stuff

Review portfolios with students

Grading: checklists/ rating scales are commonly used

Set clear evaluation standards

The role of portfolios as assessment: captures complexity

The Effects of Grading

Administrative: credits for graduation

Information: how "well" students are doing

Motivational: stimuli for high grades, fear of low ones

Guidance: help to select multiple future courses of action

grading is not effective but these are some effects.

Components of Grading:

Comparison

Norm-referenced: comparing a student's performance with others

Criterion-reference: comparing a student's performance with a standard

Some teachers only uses tests, while others may give points for effort (both are ineffective)

Weighting evidence of performance

Reporting Progress/grades to parents:

Report card: standard method

Written progress reports

PTC

Some Issues (and how to resolve them)

Don't put in 0s for missed assignments; use "60s"

Don't go off the numbers. Go off of understanding

Grading discourages students

Don't "cushion" hard grades